CHRONOLOGY

1900-1999

View of Newark's skyline from the Pennsylvania Railroad lift bridge, circa 1930.
The Newark Public Library

1900–1909

1900St. James Hospital opened.
1901The Newark Public Library building opened to the public for the first time. Hebrew Hospital and Dispensary Association was founded.
1902Newark’s Queen of Swing, Viola Wells, “Miss Rhapsody,” was born at 21 Scott St.
1903Cornerstone laid for current Newark City Hall at 920 Broad St.
1904The first business library supported by taxes opened as a branch of the Newark Public Library.
1905Dore Schary, writer-producer and director of MGM, was born in Newark. Vailsburg Township annexed by Newark.
1906New City Hall dedicated on Dec. 20.
1907Ironbound Trust Co. opened.
1908Beth Israel Hospital at High and West Kinney streets opened. Statue of Monsignor George H. Doane was dedicated in the park near Trinity Church. The new First Police Precinct Station opened.
1909The Newark Museum Association was incorporated.

1910–1919

1910The Phillis Wheatley Literary Club was organized at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church for “the study of blacks in literature and art.” President William Howard Taft attended a Newark Board of Trade dinner.
1911Morris L. Schlesinger built the Orpheum Theatre at 384 Washington St. Congregation Oheb Shalom marked its 50th anniversary by laying the cornerstone for its High Street temple. The building was dedicated at a ceremony at which Gov. Woodrow Wilson was the key speaker. The Broad and Market National Bank opened for business. The Lincoln Statue in front of the Essex County Courthouse was unveiled by former President Theodore Roosevelt under the auspices of Lincoln Post No. 11, Grand Army of the Republic. The Manhattan and Hudson Terminal electric high speed line opened at Saybrook Place and Centre Street.
1912Statue of George Washington in Washington Park was unveiled.
1913The YMCA building opened on Washington Street.
1914Portuguese and Spanish immigration was prominent along Market, Monroe and Wilson. Plans developed for the Public Service Terminal.
1916Newark celebrated its 250th anniversary with 100 major events over five months.
1917William Ashby took charge of the Newark office of the Urban League.
1918The first three Newark policewomen were sworn in.
1919The 113th Infantry of the Twenty-ninth Division, Newark troops, was welcomed home from war in Europe by large crowds.

1920–1929

1920Branford Theatre opened.
1921The Third Precinct Police Station opened at Market and Read streets. WJZ went on the air, making Newark the first city on the Atlantic Seaboard to house a regular broadcasting station.
1922WOR, located in Bamberger’s department store, broadcast the first message to England. Sir Thomas Lipton spoke from Newark to Gordon Selfridge in London.
1923The Newark Athletic Club was completed. 1924. Sarah Vaughan, jazz singer, was born in Newark.
1924Newark’s property tax was the highest in New Jersey.
1925Inaugural performance was presented at the Mosque Theatre, later renamed Newark Symphony Hall. The traffic tower at Broad and Market streets became a Four Corners landmark; it was removed in 1938. Port at Newark placed under Port of New York by President Calvin Coolidge.
1926The Newark Museum building opened to the public. Actor-comedian Jerry Lewis was born in Newark.
1927The Administration building of Port of Newark was dedicated by Mayor Thomas Raymond, marking the formal opening of the port as a major world waterway.
1928A simple ceremony marked the opening of Newark Municipal Airport by Mayor Jerome Congleton.
1929Department store owner Louis Bamberger distributed $1 million to longtime store employees. New Jersey Bell headquarters building opened at 540 Broad St.

1930–1939

1930Mrs. Felix Fuld and Louis Bamberger donated $5 million to Princeton for the Institute of Advanced Study.
1931Dedication and groundbreaking for the New Jersey Historical Society´s new headquarters at 230 Broadway.
1932The Pulaski Skyway was completed. Amelia Earhart landed at Newark Airport. Salaries of municipal employees were reduced during the Great Depression.
1933Weequahic High School opened.
1934Radio cars made their debut with the Newark Police Department.
1935New York gangster Dutch Schultz and three associates were killed in Newark´s Palace Chop House. Underground trolley service began between Broad Street and Heller Parkway. A motor patrol and emergency bureau was established by the police department.
1936The city commission voted to restore salaries for municipal employees that had been reduced to lower the budget.
1937Alfred Cerrigone opened his National Grand Opera Company of New Jersey with a matinee production of Verdi´s “Aida.” First woman foreman named to a grand jury of the U.S. District Court. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt addressed the women of the Essex County Symphony Society at Newark´s Essex House on keeping out of war.
1938Singer Connie Francis was born in Newark. Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan landed in Newark.
1939Jim Bouton, baseball player and writer, was born in Newark.

1940–1949

1940Newark´s population reached 429,760.
1941Newark selected by U.S. Office of Civil Defense for nation´s first city blackout test in World War II. Council of Jewish Women was responsible for registering aliens during the war.
1942First keel set in place in Newark´s wartime shipyard. Newark built seven destroyers, 52 destroyer escorts, and 78 troop and tank landing ships.
1943Father Washington and three other chaplains gave their lifeboats to soldiers as the Dorchester sank in enemy waters.
1945Celebrations of the surrender of Germany (V-E Day) took place all over the city.
1946Morris “Moe” Berg, Newark resident, Princeton linguist, professional baseball player and World War II hero, offered and declined the U.S. Medal of Freedom. University of Newark incorporated into Rutgers-Newark.
1947Bill passed in Legislature giving Newark´s mayor greater control of city budget.
1949World-famous opera singer Madame Maria Jeritza and her husband, Newark industrialist Irving P. Seery, moved to 200 Elwood Ave. Ralph A. Villani became Newark’s first Italian-American mayor.

1950–1959

1950Newark´s population reached 438,176.
1951$10 million expansion plan at City Hospital approved by city commissioners.
1952City commission adopted bond ordinance for the purchase and repair of Ruppert Stadium.
1953A $48.5 million terminal opened at Newark Airport. Freight helicopter service began between Newark and New York City.
1954Leo P. Carlin elected mayor. Mayor-Council Plan C of the Optional Charter Law took effect. The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart was dedicated. Rick Cerone, New York Yankees baseball star and later Newark Bears owner, born in Newark.
1955Five thousand municipal employees signed loyalty oaths.
1956Mrs. Samuel E. Cooper was appointed first woman on the city council.
1957Minsky´s announced it would suspend burlesque performances. Dublin´s lord mayor, Robert Briscoe, an Irish Jew, delivered a speech to the Essex County United Jewish Appeal at the Newark Museum in Gaelic and Hebrew. Newark Polish Falcons marked the 50th anniversary of Newark nest.
1958A marble statue of Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint, was dedicated in Cabrini Park opposite Pennsylvania Station.
1959Newark Academy announced plans to move to Livingston, but retained the name Newark Academy.

1960–1969

1961Carlin announced the formation of the Committee for Small Business Relocation Needs to assist companies subject to redevelopment.
1962Nine African-American patrolmen were promoted, the largest number of blacks promoted at one time by the Newark Police Department to date. Verner Henry chosen the first African-American president of the Newark Board of Education.
1963The police department established the human rights board to help promote better understanding between the police and public.
1964Civil rights groups began a sit-in at city hall to protest a projected increase in property tax rates.
1965Bust of John F. Kennedy unveiled in Military Park.
1966Newark received federal grant of $6.8 million for an antipoverty agency.
1967Violence erupted into six days of rioting with 26 deaths, 1,200 injured and 1,300 arrested.
1968Publication of the “Report for Action” by the Governor´s Select Commission on Civil Disorder. Work began on the Gateway Project, an office complex, mall and hotel at Pennsylvania Station.
1969Mayor Hugh J. Addonizio welcomed Western Electric´s long-term lease with the Gateway Project.

1970–1979

1970Civil engineer Kenneth A. Gibson was elected mayor, the first African-American chief executive of a major Northeastern city.
1971Crown Princess Beatrix and Prince Claus of the Netherlands visited Newark.
1972Completion of Gateway Complex.
1974Newark International Airport welcomed its first overseas flight. An Italian vice consulate was established in Newark to serve Italian-Americans in eight North Jersey counties.
1975Public Service decided to stay in Newark and began construction of a new headquarters.
1976The American Freedom Train comes to Newark as part of the nation´s bicentennial celebration. Port Newark´s containerized shipping lines visited by Denmark´s Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik.
1978The famous Gorky mural from Newark Airport restored and panels go on exhibit at the Newark Museum. PSE&G breaks ground for its new skyscraper headquarters in the city.
1979FOCUS (Field Orientation Center for Underprivileged Spanish) cited as a model organization.

1980–1989

1981People Express airline began a new era of no-frills flying, which became a national trend. Groundbreaking for One Washington Park development site.
1982Ground broken for Gateway III tower.
1984City council passed a resolution authorizing the sale of the former Newark News building for a condominium conversion. City council drafted a ban on trade with South Africa.
1985Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky of Ukraine visited St. John´s Ukrainian Church.
1986First election of Sharpe James as mayor.
1987New townhouse construction began in the Central Ward 40 townhouses along Boston and Richmond streets to be followed by an additional 700 homes in the area. This was the first time since 1970 that new marketable houses had been built in the city.
1988Newark reported $330 million worth of new housing under way with an estimated 5 million square feet of commercial and industrial development.
1989The Newark Museum underwent massive renovation as part of a $35 million expansion and renewal.

1990–1999

1990Playwright-activist Amiri Baraka proposed to the city council a plan to revive the city´s nightlife with a black cultural and entertainment district, a recreated “Barbary Coast” from South Broad Street, Lincoln Park and Washington Street to lower Kinney Street. One Newark Center at McCarter Highway and Raymond Boulevard was designed by The Grad Partnership to include a 200,000-square-foot law school, 1 million-square-foot corporate space and parking garage for 1,000 cars.
1991Newark was honored as one of 10 winners in the 42nd annual All-American City Award competition in San Antonio.
1992Plans announced for a $3.2 million roller rink in Branch Brook Park and a $1.2 million movie theater along Bergen Street and Springfield, Fairmount and 16th avenues. The South Ward Industrial Park revived.
1993Pennsylvania Station totally renovated.
1995The state assumed control of the Newark School District.
1996The monorail opened at Newark International Airport.
1997The New Jersey Historical Society opened its new headquarters at 52 Park Place, just a block from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. October 17 marked the gala opening of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. State officials announced $60 million in loans and grants to develop an international center for public health in Science Park.
1998The New Newark Foundation acquired the former S. Klein On-the-Square department store and former Hahne´s department store for downtown development. The West Side Park redevelopment plan was approved by the state in December.
1999U.S. Army Corps of Engineers broke ground along the Passaic River for the first phase of a park and walkway. Construction of the South Ward Industrial Park at West Runyon and Hunterdon streets. Riverfront Stadium opens, welcoming back to Newark minor league baseball and the Newark Bears.